The 35th annual Richard Barnhart Invitational cross country meet wasn't held on the Dulaney High campus this year, but that didn’t stop McDonogh’s Dalton Hengst from winning his second consecutive individual Barnhart title on Saturday morning.

The 3.1-mile race was held at the Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park near Oregon Ridge and hosted by Dulaney High and the Baltimore Agricultural Council and co-sponsored by Under Armour.

It was the first race held on the new course, so Hengst’s time of 15:10.1 was a course record.

““I came out yesterday morning and I ran six miles on it twice,” Hengst said. “It’s a lot different than Dulaney. I think it’s a lot harder and the weather was pretty hot today.”

Pictures from the annual Barnhart Invitational cross country meet at the Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park in Cockeysville on Saturday, September 16.

(Staff photos by Brian Krista)

Hengst’s strategy was to go out with the leaders and let the chips fall.

“I got excited for the first race of the season and I wanted to get the legs going and I know I’m in phenomenal shape right now, so I just kind of got it moving,” Hengst said.

He admitted the weather was a tougher challenge than being a defending champion.

“The sun definitely got to me,” Hengst said. “That was probably the toughest part of the race.”

Hengst has narrowed his final five colleges choices to Mississippi, Oregon, Boise State, Furman and Syracuse, but knows his senior season will be filled with runners trying to gain on him.

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“I always have to come and deliver, but I was pretty confident in the shape I was in, so this was the first race back, so that played a little bit more of a role than being defending champion,” Hengst said.

The Severna Park boys won the team competition with 44 points and ended Dulaney’s reign of consecutive Barnhart titles at four.

“They are head and shoulders the best program in the state of Maryland,” said Dulaney coach Chad Boyle, whose runner-up squad was 35 points behind the Falcons.

The Lions beat the Falcons by one point last fall when they won their second straight Class 4A state championship.

“We are behind," Boyle admitted. "I’ve been coaching for a long time [20 years] and I know what a state championship team looks like and right now, that’s what Severna Park looks like.”

“That’s always been a goal of this meet is to bring the best competition to come here, so that’s why I am so glad Severna Park came today, so we can raise the level of competition and that helps all the kids,” Boyle said.

Brian McCullough (sixth, 16:12.8) was the top finisher for the Dulaney boys.

“Our boys ran a fantastic race,” Boyle said. “We were just a little bit behind them in fitness and that is where the hard work comes ahead for us. We just have to work to catch up to them."

Loyola Blakefield, led by Camden Gilmore (fourth, 15:57.2), finished third in the boys competition.

The girls race was won by Archbishop Spalding’s Lacey Eden, who overtook Mount de Sales’ Sam Facius late in the race after Facius fell ill from apparent dehydration and couldn’t complete the course.

“I kind of got a clue to that,” Boyle said. “She came by me at 2 and a quarter [miles] and I saw the look in her eyes and I thought she was going to finish the race, I didn’t think she was going to win.”

Spalding's Allysa Combs (19:37.7) was second, followed by Severna Park's Kamryn Eveleth (19:49.7) and her teammate, Catie Cambon (19:53.7), who led the Falcons to the girls team title with 45 points.

Jaqui Sheedy (16th, 21:09) and Caroline Brune (21st, 21:14) led the way for Towson.

“It was a good day for us,” Towson coach Gil Stange said. “When you think about plugging Claire in there, when she got shut down, she was number two in practice right with Caroline.”

The new venue seemed to be a hit among runners and spectators and Boyle praised the hard workers behind the scenes.

“This is like a dream,” Boyle said. “The Dulaney community, from the other sports teams, field hockey and soccer teams being out here and the parents have been so fantastic, managing the logistics of the parking and the food and the T-shirts and the setup.”